“Food is so primal, so essential a part of our lives, often the mere sharing of recipes with strangers turns them into good friends. That’s why I love this community.”

Jasmine Heiler

So much happening all the time, haven’t had a free moment ever since I’ve been back from the Food Blogger Connect in London. I’ve been busy baking scones (101 Cookbook) and a Ginger Cake (David Lebovitz recipe), and I’m just in time to make the deadline for the 2nd MacAttackwhich Jamieand I are hosting. It’s time to get back to MACTWEETS where we’ve found this amazing bunch of peeps joining us find ‘FEET‘.

Making macarons began as a passion with us on twitter, and then I threw Jamie a challenge which she took up wholeheartedly. Soon we had many more interested and excited foodies wanting to join us make macs, and so we brought about Mactweets. “We decided to create this ‘Mactweets’ blog as our virtual Mac Kitchen, a place where all of us could gather, share advice and laughs, find encouragement and solace, give cheers and pats on the back.”

This is our second macaron challenge, the first one being hosted on the Mactweetsblog. It’s inspirational and special in every way as we have a wonderful lot of bakers eager to embrace the macaron for all it’s worth! This fiddly French cookie still tends to disappoint at times, yet still has the ability to make me scream from the rooftop or twittertop when feet appear!

Here are my precious macarons for the challenge. You still have some time today if you wish to jump on board. The basic recipe can be found on the Mactweets blog, with ‘what you need to do’ if you’d like to join us. Tweet us, mail us, or leave a comment either on Jamie’s blog, my blog or the Mactweets blog, and we’ll be thrilled to have you. Our first challenge on Mactweets has 40 members on the blogroll, and the list is growing. Every one’s welcome to the Mactweet party!!

I made hibiscus macarons for the challenge as I am currently enamoured by using natural colours and flavours in food I bake/cook. My Man Friday got me a huge bunch of beautiful hibiscus flowers a while ago and I recalled Very Small Anna mentioning using them. That’s what I decided to do too. I dried them in direct sunlight for about 10-12 days under some mulmul/cheesecloth. They retained quite a bit of their colour. It’s a wonderful feeling to dry and use natural edible flowers in baking.

Of course my first attempt was a total disaster… lavender macarons using some wonderful lavender that Purple Foodie had mailed me. My first batch of macs didn’t develop feel of any kind using the challenge recipe. They spread out in a rather alarming manner, and I literally wept at my loss of lavender that I had used to flavour them. I had flavoured some mascarpone as well to use in the filling, so I eventually used it in this Lavender Mascarpone Cake for my birthday.

Trying to find feet once again, I returned back to the David Lebovitz recipe that seems to be the only one that works for me. As always, I’m still treading very slowly, and still do a single egg white batch. It’s been an absolute joy to hear tweets and read mails from fellow macpassionates, some who found victory on first attempt, and some later. It’s wonderful too to see each one help the other, sharing valuable bits of advice and experience … the camaraderie was just what we had in mind!

My macs are anything but a pretty pink because I think the drop of lime juice that I used in my macronage had a chemical reactionwith the pink of the hibiscus, and gave it a bluish green colour. I loved that colour too and learnt something new – Machemical reactions! … all the chemistry lab experiments in school suddenly began to make sense. Jamie has a beautiful tutorial on making the meringue posted on MacTweets. I found it very helpful. Take a look here….

The filling for the macs was mascarpone…flavoured gently and luxuriously with lavender, vanilla castor sugar and powdered hibiscus. The powdered hibiscus merely lent it colour while the lavender scented it sweetly. I made the filling a little less sweet than I normally do, since the shells add to sweetness as well. This batch was very delicate and delicious!

Double the ingredients if you are making the whole recipe above.50gms mascarpone (homemade recipe here)1-2 tbsps powdered vanilla sugar (according to taste)1/4tsp lavender2-3 powdered hibiscus flowersMethod:Steep the mascarpone with the lavender overnight in an airtight container.Next day, add the sugar and hibiscus and whip to a firm consistency.Pipe onto cookies and sandwich. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

I am also delighted to receive this beautiful book from the Daring Kitchen for my entry to their cake decorating event here. Thank you Lis and Ivonne… I love the book dearly!

oh look at your macs! they have beautiful feet well done. i can't wait to join mactweets when i do have an oven. if i have time over christmas (i'm tackling 2 essays and christmas dinner then) i must def give it a go. i'm jealous of all the mac excitement! xxx

Those macs are so very pretty Deeba! I thought the tiny delicate feet on some of the lavender ones looked great too! It's very interesting that they changed colour, I remember being told hibiscus could be used as boot polish and hair dye, so maybe their natural colour tends to run towards the black/blue/purple spectrum?

Hibiscus… wat a nice try Deeba.. this is the second time I hear about using hibiscus in cooking n baking.. my mom is in the process of making hibiscus crush/squash. Coming back to macarons, they look awesome n am kinda tempted to attempt in making them (though I wonder that a beginner in baking like me shud really attempt it!!) nice to read about machemical reaction… awaiting for ur next post

Aha! Now I know what to do with those gorgeous dried hibiscus flowers you gave me!

Deeba, you're macs get better every time you make them and I am so thrilled that we decided to create this project together! I love working with you! And now look at you, beautiful macarons! I love the romantic flavors you used!

Bonjour Deeba! Thanks for stopping by my blog and your kind note. So glad I came by – you have a wonderfully delicious blog. I am going to attempt these macarons, as well as some of the other recipes I've found here. I'll be following along from now on.

Great looking macs! Sorry about the failure the first time around!! Chalk to up to experience!! And I can't believe I completely forgot about MacTweets, haven't even visited the blog yet! I'm going there right now!! I'm figuring it's too late to take part in this month's, since you've already posted??

Deeba you really have mastered these macarons. Love the flavour combination of Lavender & Hibiscus. How great is David's recipes? I would love to join Mactweets – of course! Baking up a macaron storm this month. So probably too late to enter for December, but I'm sure there are more macarons in my future! So shall I just keep track of the date for next month?

These are gorgeous macarons! You are such a pro Deeba– I love your flavors too. Hibiscus shells with lavender hibiscus cream sounds lovely. Very elegant as usual! Hope you are are having wonderful holidays! xo

Deeba, my sweet Deeba, each time I visit, I feel like I want to become a professional baker but I know I lack one important ingredient…PATIENCE…LOL. I just love these macaroons. One of these days, I'll definitely take up the challenge.You have been my inspiration in baking. Thanks for sharing.

Deeba hi,I never realized that the garden cultivated hibiscus flowers were edible. I always thought that hibiscus flowers referred to in recipes was Hibiscus Sabdariffa which is called sorrel here in the Caribbean. What a very innovative use of this flower.

Deeba, these are absolutely beautiful. I love the combination of floral notes and sugar, very nice combination! Your photos are stunning as well. Looking forward to a wonderful 2010 full of fun cooking adventure with you!

Deeba, would you believe I just got my mac post up now? I fell behind after my original ones wrre (sniff) eaten prior to my photo taking. Regardless, your macs are beautiful, and I love the hibiscus..never even though of using that as a flavoring, probably because I don't drink yea..LOL Thank you so much for coming up with this challenge along with Jamie, and have a wonderful holiday!